the women of "the Office"

 

I have a love-hate relationship with "the Office". I'm not part of the generation that watched it when it first came out, but I'm old enough to remember it. It doesn't sit well with gen Z audiences, mostly because some aspects of the show haven't aged... exceptionally. There are certain things in it that aren't going to be relatable to a younger audience. It seems to exist in a world that has slowly dwindled down to being unrecognizable. What I mean by that is, people don't have 9-5 jobs like this as much as they used to. The show paints a picture of lives that aren't as common merely because our economy and institutions have been weakened, therefore, it isn't as relatable to us. I should warn you that I will frequently be comparing the UK and US Office because I am a nerd who likes the original better.

    My first gripe about it is its female characters, because that's something I feel like I can speak for the most. I have the most things to say about Jan and the treatment of her character. Before you say, "many of the Office's episodes were written by women!" Yeah, I don't care. Women are completely capable of reinforcing sexist stereotypes as men are and their writing is still fair game to criticize. Jan is the type of character you love to hate, you're supposed to hate. She's domineering, emotional, vain, and aggressive. I have a couple of... issues with this. Firstly, the point of the character in the original British "Office" was that despite David Brent's sexist attitudes, they were counter-acted by the reality that his boss was much more qualified than him (granted, many people would be, but it was funny in an ironic sense anyway.) The US flips this dynamic almost entirely. Jan is led by her emotions and is generally chastised for her "aggressiveness." I don't know what the show thinks "aggressive" actually looks like and to be honest, this character seemed like somebody's unfulfilled revenge fantasy against a woman who dared to criticize them in the workplace (or maybe it's mommy issues, that's entirely possible.) It's not only that, but Jan is sexualized heavily. She gets a breast augmentation not because she wants to look good, but to get Michael back, as if women make choices like that solely for the men around them. Michael is given respect by the blue collar staff for having successfully slept with her. It's implied that she straight up assaults her underage intern, which the show weirdly glosses over. Despite that, it seems the show considers her biggest offense simply being a woman that's intimidating. All of this paints a picture of someone who doesn't know what she wants, and can't be trusted to handle responsibility. To be very clear, I'm not saying that women like Jan can't exist, I just find it interesting that the show's writers felt comfortable enough making her the least likable character and didn't stop to think why that is. There's something that's being projected here that isn't helpful to the image or progression of women. It's a very classic case of casual misogyny manifested into a caricature of what people think independent women are like.

    In the episode "Boys and Girls," Jan praises Kelly for her suggestion of a life with no kids and seemingly chastises Pam for wanting a home with children, as if that image isn't drilled into women's heads from a young age even into their adulthood (Pam quite literally is drawing it as they're talking about this). That leads me to my problem with Pam, or I guess Pam's treatment by the writers as well. Pam is kind of timid, almost always pleasant, and rarely speaks up for herself (mostly in the early seasons, I will give credit that this sort of changed through the series.) It isn't that she doesn't have opinions or doesn't see the problem with her environment, but only seems to be allowed to express that quietly. The entire reason her and Jim formed a bond in the first place was through their love of making fun of their boss and coworkers on the low. Despite her timidity, I slowly realized why Pam and Jim bothered me when I couldn't think of the reason before. Low-key, they think they're better than everyone else in the office, and it's very clear once you realize it. But no amount of eccentricities of Dwight or Andy's being "annoying" makes me like them less, even though the show wants me to understand it like that. I am far more bothered by every character's passiveness, casual micro-aggression towards women and people of color, or flat out selfishness than I am by Dwight's hidden ninja stars or the fact that Kelly likes to talk about celebrity gossip all the time, but that's what they really think is equivalent.

That leads me onto the next character, Kelly Kapoor. This is just my opinion, but Kelly might be the best character on the Office and I mean that with my whole chest. She has some of the best, most quotable lines in the show and yet they continue throughout the series to try and make Kelly seem insufferable. But I never felt annoyed by Kelly or even the choices she made. I honestly looked at her as any other woman navigating her twenties. Many people saw Kaling's potential because of her appearance in the show and she would move on to getting her own, and rightfully so! She's extremely funny and entertaining to watch. Of course, the writers usually squander this because Kelly is boy crazy, to put it mildly. Her entire life revolves around who she's dating, which is pretty ironic considering that's what women are supposed to be doing if we went by the show's own logic. Again, I personally don't think it's a detriment to her as a character but it's clear the show would like you to think so. She often takes a backseat to the white women of the office, which I really don't get because she's a thousand times more interesting than them. She is frequently tied to the character Ryan, who she dates on and off throughout the series and who doesn't mind treating her poorly. It's only until the very end that Ryan gets his shit together for Kelly. I have known many people who would put up with that, but I'm disappointed that Kelly had everything going for her and threw it away for Ryan who deserved none of her attention at that point. Whatever. I'm not surprised Kelly would end up with Ryan, I just think it would've been derivative from what we had seen over and over again.

    I would go on about the other female characters but this would drag on a little too long than I'd like it to. Perhaps I will make a part 2 of my analysis because I feel like I could still write quite a bit about Angela. Am I saying that you can't enjoy this show because of all the reasons I listed? Of course not. I still enjoy it myself, I simply think there are aspects of it that definitely haven't improved with time. Now that the shows over there's nothing really that can be done, but it's good to look over things in retrospect for future productions to avoid mistakes made before. I don't think "the Office," would work as well as it did. With the bush-era, conservative atmosphere post-9/11 in America, I guess I shouldn't be that shocked it has certain themes I disagree with. I'm definitely not saying to stop watching "the Office," I'm only encouraging people to have a certain awareness when consuming any type of media. 

Dwight is better than Jim sorry